lol - well you can't actually buy titles. All you do is buy a very expensive name change and legally you can call yourself anything you like as long as you don't use a name for fraudulent purposes but obviously that's what he was doing.

The ABC television network is doing a story on him on "Primetime" tonight at 9PM. I am going to try to catch it. Should be interesting. This morning on TV someone commented that unlike a lot of these "fakers" he never tried to scam anyone for money.

This guy sounds like my Ex husband, except he came from England over here and after we got married, he started telling me that he was a very "important" man in England, with titles and land, that he had an uncle that was a judge over there and another uncle who was a doctor to the royal family. Unfortunetly for him, he had no idea that I had some small kind of clue about royal titles and geneologies (sp) and that I'm very good at doing footwork to uncover the truth. He wanted me to leave the U.S. so that we could move over to the UK and live happliy ever after and live off an allowance from his mother's side of the family. Once I found out that he was a cocaine addicted, delusional, chronic,pathological liar, I left him, divorced him and will be very happy never to see that face again as long as I live.
These kind of people have some serious mental problems and literally should be locked up in the closest looney bin.

It was a very interesting & complex tale. Apparently this guy just started living in his fantasy world & never gave it up. They investigated whether or not he was some kind of spy for US, East Germany & Russia. He's not. They also did DNA tests because the real Christopher Buckingham's mother thought he might be a long lost nephew. He's not. Just a very confused guy. At least his kids were able to come over here and meet their grandparents & relatives that they never knew existed. Wow, 8 aunts & uncles plus their spouses & 23 cousins!!

As many of you may know, in Jaime Johnson’s documentary Born Rich, CVZ claimed to be a great-grandson of Kaiser William II and an Italian Baron?

Has this been confirmed?

In the same documentary, Cody Franchetti (“CF”) also claimed that his great-grandfather (maybe another great) married a Rothschild from whom he directly descends. I believe I confirmed this in a book on the Rothchilds that had a genealogical chart.

In this day and age people that pass as royals can be easily verified. Maybe in other times before the internet it was much easier since the information was difficult to compile. These days the truth is just a few clicks away from anyone in the planet.

About the Von Zeitschels, I found this: http://www.thepeerage.com/p16317.htm#i163167 but so far the only mentions of him are about that tv show. Not much on his family or his claims to celebritydom. He reminds me of the embarrasment with another celebrity, Paris Hilton's ex-boyfriend Paris. Over here in the USA he was 'sold' for the public as a rich Greek heir and latter, after she got rid of him (or his family got rid of her?) he was unmasked as just another kid of that extended family and not the sole heir of the family fortune. It's all in what the TV wants to say to sell a character for ratings. Sometimes they lie, sometimes they stretch the importance of these people beyond their reality.

Speaking of fasle claimants, here is a link from Guy Stair Santy's site related to usurpers, false claimants and royal imposters. It's quite a great reading and will sure help to realize some royal people on TV are not all they claim to be, or as Stair Santy put's it "...of yet another freshly minted genealogy..." Scroll down to see the tactics some fantasy royals used in the past.

To this day I have not found a reliable link on this guy. Not even a name listed on any genealogy trees and in most searches the name only appears listed as 'actor' whose only claim to fame is that tv show or movie he made. I can't even find a date of birth on him but he appears also listed as owner of a gallery in Soho, NY city. I also found another mention of him in this school named Aiglon College he appears as number seven under the names column, I believe a student in 1999. Here is more on that school: http://www.aiglon.ch/info/whyaiglon.shtm and in case you have a kid that must be sent away to the Swiss Alps that will later end up in a reality show, here are the prices so you can start saving: http://www.aiglon.ch/info/fees.shtm

This is very interesting for someone to appear in a TV show claiming to be part of a the last German imperial family and still, no traceable information to support his claims. We have access to so many family trees that are placed online not only by royal watchers like many of us, but by historians and families themselves. Yet, Mr. Carlo Von Zeitschel's claims evades our search.

Must say I am quite impressed with the responses. I suspect CVZ is from some lesser noble Italian descent, but not a descendant of KW II.

Any comments on Cody Franchetti’s lineage?

Thanks on behalf of everyone, we are also as curious as you are. By the way, welcome to the Forum.

On that question about Cody Franchetti, he claims to be a Baron but I just saw he is better known for his arrogant remarks and in-your-face prejudice against other people that are not of his Elite. Word to the wise, those who really have a past and come from a provileged background normally do not brag about it. Much less use it to make others insignificant. Those are the signs of people with low self esteem who claim to be more than what their actual background is.

• "I am an elitist. I believe in an elite, I believe that people want an elite ... because there s always been one, whether it be an oligarchy or a dictatorship."• On Lisa Loeb: "She is very how should I put it? petit bourgeois."• On pursuing his own reality show: "Yes, absolutely, [it s] cheap, trashy I m well aware of that. But we live in the age of Paris Hilton, my dear, so what am I going to do a show where I discuss Flaubert with people that call in? No, I don t think so."

As someone who did live in a dictatorship (Franco's) the remarks of this self proclaimed Baron are quite offensive and moronic. again, typical of a no-body celebrity trying to flash comments for pure shock value.

Now, I could not find any genealogy on that so-called Baron Cody Franchetti but there are Counts Franchetti, one of the members was married to actor Henry Fonda (Jane and Peter Fonda's dad): Countess Afdera Franchetti
But there is nothing to explain the title being downgraded from Count to Baron that can also give us a hint on who is this guy using that title. Maybe we have to realize that the so called aristocratic guests in that reality show are nothing but peripheral people as close to actual history making royalty as the planet Pluto is close to us. So, lesson learned here, don't believe everything you see on TV!

Thank you for the welcome and I was aware of the information you provided. If I find any other information, I will advise. Please do the same.

I have a book entitled “The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait” by Frederic Morton. There is an excellent genealogical chart that shows that CF’s great great grandfather (could be another great) Baron Raymondo Franchetti married Sarah Louise Rothschild (1858), the daughter of Anselm, son of Salomon, son of Mayer the dynasty founder. I read from some other source that the Franchetti’s hale from an old Italian Jewish family. So it makes further sense that CF’s ggggf would have been a suitor for a Rothschild debutante. The chart does not list further information of the descendants from the female lines. But I am almost certain this is his family.

As for his arrogance and elitism, I must agree he does wear it on his sleeve and it is no doubt a product of his insecurity. I have to say however I am not surprised. I think it is something with Italian Aristocrats on virtually all levels. In my early to mid 20s I lived in Italy and I encountered more than a few people the likes CF, but not as bad. And yes they were wealthy, but certainly not Billionaires. Although he says otherwise, he is supercilious, but he appears to be well educated. In a way I can’t blame him. And not to be an apologist, he’s simply a product of his environment.

...Now, I could not find any genealogy on that so-called Baron Cody Franchetti but there are Counts Franchetti, one of the members was married to actor Henry Fonda (Jane and Peter Fonda's dad): Countess Afdera Franchetti
But there is nothing to explain the title being downgraded from Count to Baron that can also give us a hint on who is this guy using that title. Maybe we have to realize that the so called aristocratic guests in that reality show are nothing but peripheral people as close to actual history making royalty as the planet Pluto is close to us. So, lesson learned here, don't believe everything you see on TV!

Cody Franchetti's father, Andrea, is a legitimate baron, but Cody is not a baron because his parents never married.

To my knowledge, the legitimate Franchettis are all barons. The wikipedia entry about Afdera is incorrect, as a daughter of a baron cannot be a countess.

In fairness to Cody Franchetti, what he says about his lineage appears to be true. He is a Rothschild and von Hornstein descendant. And but for his birth out of wedlock, he would have been a baron.

I wonder if Cody’s father Giorgio Andrea could make him a baron if he were recognized/legitimized.

In the Grimaldi family (Royal House of Monaco), recognition of an illegitimate daughter allowed the family to continue in its present form. This may have already been done unbeknownst to the public. Cody may be arrogant, but I want to say he would not parade himself around Manhattan without reconciling his past with his present persona.

I found this Franchetti tree on an Italian website. Cody’s line is in bold large font. Cody has other modern day notable family members. See next posts.

__________________"The grass was greener / The light was brighter / The taste was sweeter / The nights of wonder / With friends surrounded / The dawn mist glowing / The water flowing / The endless river / Forever and ever........ "

Probably of the order of the "Ritterschaft Herzogtum Anhalt e.V." which he invented himself and sold it for 6.000 EUR to people who wanted to have such an order....

__________________

__________________'To dare is to lose one step for but a moment, not to dare is to lose oneself forever' - Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark in a letter to Miss Mary Donaldson as stated by them on their official engagement interview.